How to Present Like Sean Evans (Hot Ones)

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1. Learn to craft & ask powerful questions that surprise others around you with excitement. (0:54)

Sean is EXCEPTIONALLY talented at asking amazing questions that no one else asks. One example I can give from his Hot Ones episode with Gary Vaynerchuk, the CEO of VaynerMedia, that guy gets 1000’s of questions, yet was surprised by Sean’s. One of them was a game Gary had to play where he was given 15$ and had to allocate that money across different celebrities to maximize attention and reach. I thought it was so original & creative, and Gary was blown away by it as well.

The lesson here for all of us is that there’s different kinds of questions that I call Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 questions. Level 1 is the typical one we hear all the time: What’s the advice you have for your younger self? How’s your day going? How are you? Who are you? Just a bunch of random, terrible questions that all of us get asked all the time – boring and unoriginal. Then you have Level 2 questions: which are questions that anyone can be given, but are uncommon: think what’s the biggest misconception about your industry?

What’s your process in prioritizing issues in life? Finally, my favorite ones that Sean is a master at: Level 3 questions, a question that ONLY the person in front of you can answer because it’s SO SPECIFIC to who they are. Like when he asked Logic, the rapper, about his chicken wing days working at his old job and how that influenced his musical style. He was so impressed, with the message being level up the quality of your questions.

2. Creating & going on unique experiences with others lasts for a lifetime. (3:14)

What I find the most fascinating about Sean Evans’ Hot Ones interview show is how unique the format is. Celebrities probably do 100s, if not 1000s of interviews but they’ll always remember this one because its where they had to eat really spicy chicken wings with this guy named Sean. When you go on unique experiences with people, those memories get etched into your mind, and that’s why Sean probably has an easier time getting other celebrities to come on the show, because they’ll just tell their friends about it and all of a sudden, Hot Ones is not really an “interview” or a “boring podcast episode”, it’s an experience, it’s a ROLLERCOASTER RIDE that your awesome friends want to go on.

The lesson I find for all of us, is we don’t need to be the best communicators in the world because Sean really isn’t, but by combining our speeches, our workshops, our ability to communicate ideas with cool experiences or creative ways to make people remember the moment they’re in right now, that’s what truly stands the test of time, so don’t be shy to brainstorm ideas to bring more of that uniqueness to the table of the ideas you want to share with the world.

3. Friendships are built through HARD times. (4:56)

When I think back to every great friendship/partnership I’ve had in my life, most of them were built from very difficult experiences. Whether it was as simple as spending years building out this YouTube channel with my creative director Dany who’s behind this camera, when I used to spend 100s of hours practising presentations with all my friends to go out to competitions, to being poor most of my life and sleeping on the same bed as my 4-5 other cousins when we were 10 years old, when we do HARD things with others, it builds ENDURING friendships that last throughout the test of time.

This is why Sean’s show Hot Ones is so fascinating to me. Because it’s a shared experience that is both unique, but more importantly DIFFICULT – the most important piece is that Sean isn’t just sitting across from the guest, he’s ALSO eating the spicy chicken wings too. That willingness to go through the PAIN of eating these wings EVERY SINGLE TIME is truly what makes Sean so special as an interviewer since the guest only does it once. He’s willing to do anything to create the best interview experience on the planet, and it’s no wonder why so many celebrities line up to be on the show, because he builds REAL friendship with the guests in such a short period of time. What tough experience can you go on or create for your audiences to remember the ideas you want to share for the rest of their lives?

As always, if you enjoyed this week’s episode of MasterTalk, be sure to SMASH that LIKE button and SUBSCRIBE to the YouTube channel as well to see more videos like this and if you know one person who’s a fan of chicken wings, be sure to send them this video so that they’ll be one step closer to taking the first bite in their communication journey.

Special thanks to Maison Leporem for letting me use the space.